2 motorcycle thieves, shabu dealers face raps in Maguindanao del Norte

COTABATO CITY — Two men tagged in 13 motorcycle thefts and known for distributing shabu in isolated barangays in Maguindanao del Norte are now both detained, awaiting prosecution.

Salman Kato Samama, 44, and his 43-year-old cohort, Jumel Matavia Ledesma, were intercepted on Tuesday night by policemen led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin in the town proper of Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte, while on their way to deliver to a buyer P12,000 worth of shabu.

Madin, chief of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, said that the duo was intercepted at a security roadblock that they set after receiving tips from vigilant tipsters about their supposed delivery of their illegal merchandise to a contact in one of the barangays under their jurisdiction.

He said that they are now investigating reports by “concerned citizens” that Samama and Ledesma had stolen more than a dozen motorcycles in different towns and in nearby Cotabato City in recent months.

Besides the P12,000 worth shabu seized from them by personnel of the Datu Odin MPS that intercepted them at a stretch of a highway in the municipality, the two suspects also yielded a .38 revolver and a motorcycle without registration document, believed to be one of the units they have stolen recently.

Madin said that they have separately charged Samama and Ledesma with possession of shabu and an unlicensed handgun.

“Once we can get confirmation from the Bangsamoro Land Transportation Office that the motorcycle we have confiscated from them is a stolen motorcycle, we shall file a corresponding motorcycle theft case against them too,” Madin said.